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The City Dark Shown on June 17

Movies That Matter takes a look at the importance of darkness on Tuesday, June 17 at 4:30 pm.

The City Dark chronicles the disappearance of darkness. The film follows a filmmaker (and amateur astronomer) who moves to New York City from Maine and discovers an urban sky almost completely devoid of stars. He poses a deceptively simple question, “What do we lose, when we lose the night?”.

Exploring the threat of killer asteroids in Hawaii, tracking disoriented hatching turtles along the Florida coast, and rescuing birds on Chicago streets injured by collisions with buildings, the filmmaker unravels the myriad implications of a globe glittering with lights–including increased breast cancer rates from exposure to light at night, and a generation of kids without a glimpse of the universe above. In six chapters weaving together cutting-edge science with personal, meditative sequences reflecting on the human relationship to the sky, The City Dark shines new light on the meaning of the dark.